Russian TV companies estimated losses from illegal distributors.
The Russian TV channels “TNT Comedy”, CTC, “Nostalgia”, “REN TV”, “Channel One. Worldwide Network” and “Dozhd” filed lawsuits with the Court of New York against the companies Infomir, Panorama TV, Goodzone TV, Matvil Corporation, Actava TV, Master Call Communications, as the “Kommersant” informs.
We shall accentuate that each TV Company filed an individual lawsuit, but according to the US legal requirements, they were consolidated in one class action suit.
As assured by the plaintiffs, the re-broadcasters in the United States illegally use trademarks and distribute TV signal at a price that is significantly lower than the official partners’s one, what affects earnings from foreing distributions. On the web sites of such companies and after paying for services, users can download an IPTV-player or install a set-top box. The Russian TV companies appealed to the Court of New York for finding the owners of such resources in order to stop illegal relay of the TV channels’ signal and indemnify them USD 75 thousand.
As the “Kommersant” was told by the “CTC Media”, the illegal US OTT-operators provide their services at a lower price because they do not sign contracts with the right holders and do not invest in their infrastructure that can not provide users with a high-quality relay of the Russian TV channels’ signal.
The Mediasat turned to the company Infomir asking to comment on the existing situation:
The Company has not received yet any court documents. At the same time, we know about the forwarded claims, as they are kept in the public available sources.
The company Infomir is a manufacturer of IPTV set-top boxes, which in themselves ARE NOT devices providing an unauthorized access to the secure content for its further decoding and playback, and they are just usual multifunctional media players like minicomputers.
The devices DO NOT HAVE any link to any content, and they are used by various companies worldwide to provide a wide range of services.
The company Infomir is not involved directly or indirectly in providing any content-containing services.
Neither promotional materials of our company, nor web site, nor devices, nor software contain names or advertising of any trademark but the our own one, there are not any video and audio materials owned by persons who put forward claims.
So, we consider this lawsuit absolutely frivolous, and its claims are irrelevant to the company Infomir.
The current situation surely casts a shadow on the company’s good name and can dent its business reputation. Therefore, we have been actually working on estimating the extent of damages and preparing counterclaims against our opponents.
